KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) – Kainat Soomro was 13 years old and on her way to buy a toy for her newborn niece when three men kidnapped her, held her for several days and repeatedly raped her.
Eight years later, she is still battling for justice. She sits on a steel-framed bed in her parents’ three-bedroom home, and holds her blue shawl tight around her body. When she describes the horror of her captivity her voice is barely a whisper, but it gains strength when she talks of the fight she has been waging: going to Pakistan’s courts, holding protests, rejecting the rulings of the traditional Jirga council, taking on the powerful landlord and politician who she says are protecting her attackers.
Her battle for justice has inspired an award-winning 2014 movie, “Outlawed in Pakistan.” Malala Yousefzai, the Pakistani teenage Nobel Peace Prize winner who was shot by the Taliban, invited Kainat to the Nobel award ceremony, and her fund has given Kainat financial help.
Yet Kainat’s family has paid a high price for her bravery. One sister remains unmarried and another was divorced because her in-laws were ashamed to be associated with Kainat. In 2010, her brother was killed over his sister’s refusal to stay silent.
Clutching a gold-framed picture of his son, Ghulam Nabi Soomro spat out words of condemnation. “They know about our troubles thousands of miles away but here in the next street no-one is helping us get justice,” he said.